Patreon Project: An Art Book of Fully-Dressed Fictional Femmes

Hi gang,

For a while I’ve wanted to do a Patreon, but had no idea what to pitch to you. I don’t run a webcomic, I do book reviews on YouTube maybe once a week, and my books don’t come out often enough to reward people for subscribing.

However, I think I’ve figured it out. After some conversations with my friends, I’m going to start doing regular artwork, with the intention of assembling a book to publish later on. It’s too early to say when or how on the book, but I want to start drawing the content pretty soon.

The theme is simple: well-developed female characters, in practical roles and with practical accessories.

This came to me when one of my friends mentioned that her teenage daughter had a hard time finding fantasy art or superhero art with female characters that weren’t flagrantly sexualized. I agree that this is a problem, but it’s one of those social powder kegs these days, the kind you can’t talk about without one side screaming “CHAUVINIST!” and the other screaming “FEMINIST!” and the whole thing goes up in smoke.

Well, I decided I don’t care about any of that. The simplest way for me to do anything about it is to just draw cool characters doing cool things in a respectable way. There isn’t enough of it out there, so I’m going to contribute.

Who will I draw? In order to avoid copyright infringement, I’m going to use my own characters, both from my published and unpublished works. That means the entire lineup of femmes fatales from the Engines of Liberty series, Danielle from KILL THE BEAST (pictured above), and the Amazons from THE HERO NEXT DOOR.

But wait, there’s more! I don’t think you guys realize the number of projects that I have brainstormed or world-built, but haven’t yet outlined. I have a ton of characters on deck. From mechanics to jockeys, steampunk machine operators, hellhounds, magicians, military leaders, farmers, rebels, gunslingers, warriors, alien invaders, small-town ghost hunters, fantasy folks of all colors and sizes, superheroines, starfighter pilots, and mech captains…and that’s just so far.

By my current count, I have a list of 52 of them to do, and some of them merit more than one drawing. Even if I did one per week (which I probably won’t…life just happens) it would take me all year to finish it.

THUS, here is my pitch: I’m going to start these drawings, and though I will post progress shots along the way, I will only list the final versions on the Patreon for the backers to access. That way you can get them as they become available, and don’t have to wait until 2019 for the publication.

The monthly subscriptions will be very cheap, too. I might have three levels of support, with the highest one coming in at $5 a month.

Whatever money I’m able to raise for it will go toward supplies and materials, and will help me render high-quality digital versions of these characters for the eventual book. I will figure out other perks along the way, based on what I can manage.

I’m excited to undertake this, and to put these characters out there. Hopefully you’ll want to be a part of it!

Feel free to weigh in via the comments box, or drop me an email: dreadpennies [at] gmail.

Thanks everyone!